4 years ago

The first in a series of low-key readings of old blog entries.
This one shares the incredible transformational power of forgiveness when applied in a certain way.

(The sound is not fixed so well as the problem is with the source clip. If you bear with it for a little while it gets better. Best not to listen to it too loud or in headphones and it isn't so irritating. Cheers.
P.S Will make sure it's better with the next one.)

Original blog: https://garthclarkson.blogspot.com/20...
My home page: https://www.garthclarkson.com/ (has a link to Keto Links)

For those interested in the technical stuff -

I have up/downgraded my gear:

Originally I had a camcorder with a built-in HDD (JVC Everio) which was fairly good quality but interlaced standard definition (576i) and subject to a bit of combing, etc.. Next I used a Full HD Logitech webcam but I inadvertently plugged it into a different USB port and it went stupid, gain, colour and white balance are shocking and keep reverting to a badly solarised picture. No matter how I try it is a lost cause. I can turn the gain down to its minimum and I still have a shiny dome in the midst of darkness.

Now I have broken out my trusty Sony Handycam (1080p60) and my HDMI capture dongle can't handle it and only delivers 576i (can't complain, it was cheap - wouldn't mind a BlackMagic Mini Recorder capture card now that I am using a proper PC again rather than the laptop (mind you that laptop has 16G RAM, dual HDDs, i7, dedicated nVidia Geforce450 graphics, FHD 3d screen, BluRay burner. It is getting old but still runs nicely, even for video editing).

The quality of the Sony was still significantly better in terms of colour and sharpness over the Logitech (and so it should, seeing as it is a much higher-end bit of equipment) but still had bad lag and severe combing. I went back to the camera and turned down all its settings so that it would deliver 576i natively so that the dongle wouldn't have to work hard doing the downscaling to USB 2.0. That worked like a charm. Then I applied de-interlacing, colour correction and scaling at the source level in OBS Studio and it worked like a charm. I know that lots of people think that high resolutions are necessary but when it's going to be scaled down to a small 300x180 window in the corner, even 576i is OVERKILL!!! Besides, the editor I use for post-production is Lightworks' free version which is awesome except that it nerfs the export to 720p so, for me, it really doesn't make a difference.

Ironically I had installed heaps more lighting recently to help with the webcam but after installing the Sony, I had to turn all but 2 off to get the best picture.

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